Rizvi: BNP won’t support Jamaat hartal

BNP said on Wednesday that the party does not support Thursday’s hartal called by one of it’s key alliance partners, Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami, protesting the arrest of its top leaders, including Ameer Maqbul Ahmad.

BNP senior joint secretary general Ruhul Kabir Rizvi made the remarks at a press conference at the party’s Nayapaltan central office on Wednesday afternoon.

Answering a question on whether their party will support Jamaat’s hartal, the BNP leader said, “The secretary general of our party issued a statement demanding the release of those arrested. That’s all regarding the issue, and we’ve nothing else planned for it.”

He was asked whether the party supports the hartal or not, and replied that he did not get any direction from the party high-command about it.

Earlier on Monday night, a team of Detective Branch of police arrested a number of high-ranked officials of Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami from a house at Road-3 of Sector-11 as they were allegedly holding a clandestine meeting. The arrested people included Jamaat Ameer Maqbul Ahmad, its Nayeb-e-Ameer Mia Golam Parwar, also a former MP from Khulna-5 constituency, Secretary General Dr Shafiqur Rahman and six other party leaders.

To protest against the arrest, Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami on Tuesday called the countrywide dawn-to-dusk hartal throughout Thursday.